Admission to ms/phd without bachelors in biology

[abcd1]

Hello,

I am an international student planning to apply to an ms/phd program in biological sciences.

My problem is that due to personal/financial reasons i was not able to obtain a bachelors degree in biology. I have a recognized 4 years bachelors degree in business (with a good GPA and 2 years banking experience) but i always loved and wanted to study biology. For the last two years i have been taking some undergraduate science courses along with my job. Also i have studied very hard for the gre biology subject test and i am confident that i would be able to do very well in it in April. I have mailed some universities to ask if i can apply to a graduate/phd program in biology but am not getting any clear reply. Most universities say that as i have a 4 year degree (even though its not in biology)i am eligible to apply but competition would be very tough. What i want to ask is that even though i am eligible to apply, do i really have a realistic chance of getting admission? Would a good gre biology score make up for my deficiencies?

Also i am not aiming to get get into the best universities, i would be happy to get admission in any reasonably good university. So which universities should i consider applying to?

I would appreciate some advice as i really struggled through my business degree and am desperate to switch my field.

Thanks

[jaxzwolf]

The undergraduate courses in biology will help, and if your GRE scores are great (not just good, but really, really good) that should go a long way toward piquing the interest of an admissions committee. I suppose the best advice I could offer you is to try and get some practical experience in biology before applying. What type of biology are you looking to do? For example, if you're interested in cellular/molecular biology, try to get an internship position or volunteer in a lab studying molecules/cells. Similarly for genetics, bacteriology, virology, etc. If there is a university/research lab/hospital/etc. near where you live it might help to contact them and see if there is any way you can actively participate in some of their research. If you're interested in field sciences, like botany of zoology, try and find someone in your vicinity doing field research, and ask if you can volunteer or assist them in any way. Even if you just end up sitting at a computer and assimilating data, some research experience is better than none.

Since research will be your primary task in graduate school, it might be more important for potential advisers to see that you know what you're getting into and that you're capable of research than the fact that you're interested in the subject and have taken classes.

The summer before you plan on applying, decide the schools to which you want to apply. Then, pick faculty members whose research interests you the most and contact them directly. In many biological science programs, students are admitted directly to individual labs as opposed to programs as a whole, so it will often be the professors themselves who get the final say in whether or not you're admitted. When you email these professors, briefly outline your background and research interests, tell them what you'd like to study in grad school, and explain why their research interests you. Then ask if they're planning on accepting new grad students for the upcoming year. This approach should get you more direct answers on your chances of admission as a nontraditional student. Some professors might welcome it, others not, so going through this process should help you narrow down your choice of schools to a list where you have a reasonable chance of acceptance.

Lastly, it might be worth applying only to MSc programs, as opposed to MSc/PhD or PhD programs, especially if you lack the requisite research experience in biology. I think in general many master's programs expect you to have less research experience than PhD programs, and master's tend to be more guided. If you do a master's first you'll build your credentials in biology and gain the important research experience necessary to be an appealing candidate for a PhD. A master's program might also be more willing to accept a nontraditional student, or someone with less research experience, although I could be wrong.

Hope that helps!

[abcd1]

Thanks a lot for the quick reply.

I am interested in evolutionary biology. I also thought that applying for ms would be better but it seems that most universities are only offering masters leading to PhD. If you know about universities offering only masters degrees please let me know.

Thanks

[hifolks]

Thanks a lot for the quick reply.

I am interested in evolutionary biology. I also thought that applying for ms would be better but it seems that most universities are only offering masters leading to PhD. If you know about universities offering only masters degrees please let me know.

Thanks

You should consider professional MS programs as well. Remember that when the committee sees your application, they're going to need to be convinced that you can do the work. Most people have this covered by majoring in bio as undergrads. Those of us coming from other fields (liberal arts/mathematics) have to prove ourselves, but for us it is more work. I am currently working through one of these to go into a PhD or research MD afterwards.

Off the top of my head, these schools have professional programs:

Johns Hopkins

Harvard

UC Berkeley

[ogopo]

You might also want to consider applying to Canada. It seems to me that the US is not as big on masters programs as Canada is. Also, you have the option of doing a course-based masters first then doing a PhD, if you can't get into a research masters.

Good luck

[Haustier]

It tends to vary from school to school as to what they will accept. For instance, my undergrad was in Chemical and Biomolecular engineering and some biology schools flatly rejected me b/c it was an engineering and not a science degree (even though my research was in microbiology). I even had one school ask me to withdraw my application from the Biomedical Engineering PhD program for the same reason (Which is really funny as BMED and ChBE are really closely related...it would be like a CHEM major applying as a BioCHEM). My advice it to try applying to programs that are highly interdisciplinary...think that would be your best bet.

[allisonkermit]

Do you know what type of research you're interested in? I've found that contacting professors whose research interests are aligned with my own, and asking them about admission potential works better than contacting the program.

Also, if you're interested in marine biology at all, there's a professional master's program at Northeastern called Three Seas which takes a year and a half to complete, helps shore up coursework in marine biology and also gives you the chance to complete a research project during a 6 month internship. One of the other students that did this program the year I did actually came from a non science background, and while she's not applying for PhD programs now, she certainly will be able to in the future.

Hope that helps!

[abcd1]

Just appeared for my GRE biology.

Expecting a score of around the 80th percentile (or better if i get lucky). Given that i don't have a bio background is it good enough?

[Mrs. Bio]

Just appeared for my GRE biology.

Expecting a score of around the 80th percentile (or better if i get lucky). Given that i don't have a bio background is it good enough?

Based on my experience and what I've heard 80% is pretty dang good. Of course for someone wanting to apply to bio programs without a bio background it becomes much more important to excel on the subject test than if you had grades from undergrad to show the same thing

[abcd1]

Based on my experience and what I've heard 80% is pretty dang good. Of course for someone wanting to apply to bio programs without a bio background it becomes much more important to excel on the subject test than if you had grades from undergrad to show the same thing

Thanks for the reply.

I had worked really really hard for this test and 80th percentile is the minimum i am expecting (of course this is just my expectation and the actual result might be much better or worse than this, you never know now about these tests)

I just hope i get a good score because most people i have talked to are not very optimistic about my chances.

[abcd1]

Received my gre biology result today. Scored in the 88th percentile (96% in organismal, 84% in cell bio)

So now my qualifications are:

Bachelors in Business (4-Years including 1 year of calculus and stats, mentioning this because i hope this would be of some help in improving my chances)

1 year of college level science courses - chemistry, zoology and botany with a gpa of around 3 (but the college doesn't follow the gpa system, gpa of 3 is just my guess and doesn't really reflect my grades)

Also planning to appear for the gre subject test in cell bio/genetics

So what are my chances of getting into a bio graduate program now? Will only apply for masters (not to phd because have zero research/practical experience)

[abcd1]

Sorry if this thread is getting too long but i just appeared for my gre and wanted to know about my chances now.

My updated qualifications are:

Bachelors in Business (4-Years including 1 year of calculus and stats) :

Bachelors in Science (2 Year Degree with Biology and Chemistry majors, in progress but will be complete before the end of the year)

GRE Subject Test Biology : 810 (88%)

GRE : 1470 (750V, 720Q)

GRE Suject Test Biochemistry : Will appear in Nov.

So what are my chances of getting into a masters program in biology given i have zero research experience? I have mailed some universities but since i know only about the famous top ranked ones i don't think thats realistic. Names of some "less famous" universities where i might stand a chance would be of great help.

Thanks

[Teelee]

If you have a high science GPA, getting into Masters won't be as hard. It all depends on what schools you apply to.

[abcd1]

If you have a high science GPA, getting into Masters won't be as hard. It all depends on what schools you apply to.

Well most universities i have mailed are telling me that it is really unlikely that i would be accepted based on my current qualifications and no research experience. So if you can recommend me some universities/ programs it would be a big help.

[Teelee]

Well why not apply to your current school for Masters? If you know the professors there, you maybe able to have an easier time getting in rather than applying to a new school. There are so many colleges and universities offering MS in Biology that does not require much, so it really depends on what state you plan on attending.

If you plan on applying for 2012, you still have time to at least volunteer at a lab for a semester and get your experience.

[eco_env]

Here are some places to look for grad schools:

http://www.gradschools.com/

http://graduate-scho...ds.org/rankings

And specifically Master's in evolutionary biology:

http://www.gradschoo...biology/masters

and here you can search by selectivity:

http://www.gradview.com/collegesearch/areaofstudy.jsp?domain=clear

Edited July 3, 2011 by eco_env

[MaxiJaz]

This post might be a bit late, but have you considered maybe doing a 2 year bio undergrad in North America? (assuming you did your business degree in UAE). A big part of doing a MSc. or Phd is the caliber of your research institution and your supervisor's mentorship/network, and without doing higher level bio courses (3rd/4th year) you will find it very hard to be considered, even if you do well in basic bio courses. This is coming from someone who took a second degree after not enjoying the first one, and the two-years spent was definitely worth it, particularly as I knew I wanted to get into research.

Edited February 28, 2012 by MaxiJaz